Pledge
by lightblue-Nymphadora
Summary: 100 Days of AUs. Rachel's pledging to the most popular sorority on campus. Quinn's her "big sister", but maybe there's something more there. Faberry.


_**LbN: This one was a sub out from the original list. Prompt was "frat/sorority AU". Happy reading!**_

Rachel whipped around when she heard her name being called, and smiled as three girls in bright purple hoodies strode toward her. She stood to attention, arms at her sides as she'd been taught. It was pledge week, and even though it had only been two days, so far she had an immaculate score of pledge duties. The girl who called her, Quinn Fabray, was her big sister and liked trying to catch her out.

"Morning, Little," Quinn said. "Recite the Greek alphabet, please."

Without missing a beat, Rachel started. "Alpha, beta, gamma, delta…."

Quinn watched as her pledge sister rattled off the alphabet, missing not a single letter. She shot a smug, my-pledge-is-better-than-your-pledge, look at the other two sorority girls. "Well done. I'll walk you to class."

Rachel beamed. At their small, liberal arts college, the Greeks were the leading organization - led by the Kappa Gamma Sigmas (sorority) and the Beta Omikron Deltas (fraternity). Everyone wanted to be seen in purple or blue, or to be seen with someone wearing those colors. Rachel had gotten used to spending large chunks of her day with Quinn, since the Bigs used the whole "being seen" thing as an incentive for their pledges to work hard. Rachel knew she was perfect in terms of knowing sorority trivia and participating in pledge events.

"How are your classes going?" Quinn asked as they walked east toward the theater building.

"General Logic is kicking my butt. Other than that, they're all fine."

"I still can't believe they count that as a math credit."

"Me either, but I'm not complaining."

The blonde laughed at this and opened the door to the large brick building. "Are you going to eat lunch with us?" she asked, fixing the purple and black bow in Rachel's hair.

"I have to eat with my study group," Rachel said apologetically.

"No problem. I'll see you tonight for the meeting." With that, Quinn gave her a tiny peck on the forehead and strode out of the theater hall.

Rachel stared after her for a moment before turning to go into her class. She spotted her classmate, Elliot, leaning in the doorway and reapplying his eyeliner. "Hey El."

"Miss Berry," he said.

"The Deltas let you wear makeup?" she asked.

Elliot grinned and tapped the small blue and silver ribbon pinned to his shirt. "Star Pledge for the day. I'm allowed to wear makeup today, and I get dessert at dinner. How's it going for you?"

"Good. I think the other pledges are getting annoyed at me though. I'm making them look bad."

"Don't worry about it. Let's go sit before Knorp has our asses for being late."

* * *

Rachel's arms were burning, and not in the pleasant, "Gee, that was a good workout," way. She wasn't totally sure they would support her much longer. She and the rest of the pledges were in pushup position in front of the Greek houses. Not just the pledges from her sorority, but all of the greek orgs. There was a line of blue, purple, green, orange, and red going down the sidewalk. They looked like round one of Legends of the Hidden Temple. Someone had done something idiotic, and now they were all in trouble. She'd heard conflicting accounts, but the one thing everyone agreed on was that it had been someone from the Thetas, and it was the reason the campus pond was bright orange. Every once in a while, they felt an icy cold blast as one of the Greeks shot them with a super soaker.

"Pledges Gilbert, Sokoll, Berry, Ives, and Williams!" the president of Greek Life barked into the megaphone. "Stand and follow your Big to the Delta House."

Rachel struggled to her feet, shaking slightly. What was going on? They didn't think she'd had anything to do with this, right? Looking down the row, she spotted one person from each organization headed to the big house. Quinn glided over and took her hand.

Quietly, but not quietly enough, one of Rachel's fellow pledges said, "Of course she gets to leave."

Rachel felt Quinn tense next to her, and stopped when the blonde jerked to a halt.

"What was that, pledge?" she barked at the girl still on the ground. She motioned for the megaphone and spoke into it. "On your feet, Pledge Windam!"

The other pledge stood, looking terrified.

"Pledge Windam, what is rule three of Greek life?" Quinn asked.

"We will support our pledgemates and fellow brothers and sisters. We will be each others' support system, and hold each other up through times of struggle," the girl said loudly.

"Pledge Windam has broken rule three, by complaining about the reprieve of her fellow pledges! Pledge Windam, please explain your jealousy."

"I...we...I'm sorry."

Quinn quirked an eyebrow at her, and the pledge rushed into an explanation.

"Our arms are tired, is all!" Windam insisted. "I didn't mean to complain."

"Pledge Windam says your arms are tired," Quinn said. "Well, we don't want to torture you, do we?"

Rachel now noticed a slightly evil look on all the Greek members faces.

"On your backs!"

As one, all 37 pledges flipped onto their backs.

"Feet in the air, and hold."

The president and treasurer weren't even trying to hide their glee. Both were laughing openly, and Rachel distinctly heard the president say, "God, you're evil, Fabray," when Quinn handed back the megaphone. She followed her Big back into the Theta house, and sat with the other pledges.

"Don't worry," Spencer, a Theta, said. "We'll let them up in a moment. As soon as you five come up with a community service project the new brothers and sisters can do next month as… we'll say penance, for the pond prank."

It took them five minutes to come up with the idea of a campus-wide Cards Against Humanity tournament, after which their fellow pledges were indeed let up.

Quinn beckoned for Rachel to follow her back to the house, and gave her a water bottle as they stood in the kitchen.

"You ready for the final night of pledging?" she asked.

"I think so. You're not going to sacrifice a goat to induct us or anything, right?"

Quinn laughed. "No. Nothing like that. Go on up to my room and do homework or something. Amanda's about to give the rest of the pledges a bollocking."

"I'll stay," Rachel said. She gave Quinn a brief smile. "They already think I get special treatment. I should stand with them...or whatever." From the look Quinn gave her, she had a feeling she'd passed some sort of test.

"Fine then. Let's get into the living room."

* * *

Candles (illegal on campus, but to hell with the rules) were lit in the foyer and living room. Five of the eight pledges had made it to this night, and sitting blindfolded in the living room.

"You have made it through pledging," Amanda, the Sigmas' president, said. "You have recited your vows, and now you will light your candles. The candle symbolizes a promise - a promise that you will forever be a sister to us, and to the Greeks of this college. To those who have come before us, and will come after, you are a student and will be a mentor. Remove your blindfolds."

Rachel took hers off, and blinked in the semi-darkness. She spotted Quinn smiling at her across the table.

"You may now light your candles."

As she lit her candle, Rachel half expected the sisters to start chanting. But they didn't. Carrolyn turned on the lights, and everyone clapped.

"Congratulations," Amanda said. "You're now sisters of Kappa Gamma Sigma. Please come forward, and receive your pledge gifts from your sisters."

Quinn passed Rachel a small box, which turned out to contain a necklace. It was a tiny circular pendant with a red gemstone dangling in the middle of the circle. Quinn smiled as she took it out of the box and put it on Rachel.

"Best of all," Quinn said, "I don't have to call you Pledge, Little, or Berry anymore. So, Rachel, how does it feel to be a sister officially?"

"Amazing. I'm slightly in shock, though that could be the jewelry," Rachel said.

"Well, it looks good on you, so you have to wear it," Quinn told her, winking.

"Right! We're leaving in twenty minutes for the Pledge Party," Amanda called. "You have exactly that long to freshen up makeup, fix your hair, do what you need to do. It shouldn't be that much - you're all dressed up for induction. Let's roll."

The newest sisters lived in the basement. Rachel shared a suite with three other girls, two to each room with one bathroom between them. One of the girls, April Windham, rolled her eyes when Rachel walked back in from brushing her teeth.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"You know she just wants in your pants right?"

"Excuse me?" Rachel sputtered.

"Quinn. That's all this was. The special treatment during pledge week, the fancy gift. But maybe you don't care…. Swing that way yourself, Berry?"

"Oh for the love of - enough of the jealous high school crap!" Rachel snapped. "We made it. We're both golden. You have nothing to worry about, so just mind your business." She turned to grab her jacket, and strode back upstairs without another word. She vaguely heard one of the girls telling April off, but it didn't make her feel any better.

Quinn put an arm around her as they made their way over to the Epsilon house. "You okay? You look worried? Is it about that rumor about the famous Epsilon Punch? Because I've had it before and it's totally roofie-free. Well, usually."

Rachel let out a laugh at that. "No, no. Just...thinking. It's nothing though."

* * *

The assignment was "Sexy". Elliot had done a fully choreographed version of Are You That Somebody by Aaliyah. Rachel's new BFF, Dani, had done Ed Sheeran's version of Pony on the guitar. Rachel was pretty sure she'd heard panties drop a mile away. For her part, she'd decided to go obscure. Lay Down Beside Me was a stretch, but she loved the song and was pretty sure she'd done it justice. Definitely sure, when she got off stage and found Dani and Elliot looking at her like she was a cheesecake.

"Calm down, both of you," she said, grinning. "Let's go watch the rest of the show."

There were only another five songs, this being a "Majors Only" performance. When they got out into the cool night air, they spotted a few of the Greek crew waiting for them. Dani gave Rachel a sly smile when she spotted Quinn.

"Have a good night, you two," she sang, wandering back toward the Art dorm.

Rachel repressed a huff with difficulty. She'd told Dani and Elliot about what Windham had said on pledge night, and the first things out of their mouths had been,

"We ship it."

Since then, they'd kept an annoyingly close watch over Rachel and Quinn's movements, and had an elegant spreadsheet of theories and bets going. Rachel had threatened to cut them off from any future baked goods that year if they didn't cut it out, but no luck so far.

"Do I even want to know about the look your friends just gave you?" Quinn asked, smiling.

"No, you really don't. Did you like the show?"

"Loved it. Let's walk around the pond. The GSA did a candlelight chat, and it looks really pretty right now."

"Okay," Rachel agreed, allowing Quinn to take her hand.

The pond was indeed lit with about a hundred floating candles, and the girls strode around it in silence for a while.

Finally, Rachel couldn't stand it any longer. "Quinn?"

"Yeah?"

"I… I need to ask you something. And please don't get mad, and I won't be upset if the answer's no. I just need to know."

"Before you ask, can I check something?"

"Ah...sure?"

"Okay. If I were to ask you out right now, how much money would Elliot win?"

Rachel stood gaping at her for a long moment, then gave her a playful shove. "You knew!"

"In my defense, I didn't know until they started betting on our future kids' names," Quinn admitted. "And… listen, I do like you. But not in the way Windham thought. I may have pulled it out of her the other day," she said in answer to the silent question. "She'd been acting weird around me and I noticed she was avoiding all contact with you when possible. Anyway, I'd love to get to know you more. If you're up for it?" she asked shyly.

Rachel smiled. "Elliot won fifteen dollars," she said, causing Quinn to laugh. "But he also owes Dani dinner."

"Why's that?"

"Because he bet her that I'd chicken out and say no. She bet I'd say yes."

An elated smile spread across Quinn's face as Rachel took her hand, and they continued their walk.

_**Fin**_


End file.
